Ski touring on groomed slopes—Exploring an alpine winter sports trend and potential tourism product

Abstract

Winter sports tourism in the Alps remains competitive and challenges destinations to develop and offer new tourism products. Slope ski touring (SST) is an excellent example. In the Alps, this winter sport has been experiencing a tremendous boom. However, SST has been poorly examined in academia. Thus, we aimed to gain in-depth understanding of the SST phenomenon from both a supply and demand perspective by conducting two studies. In Study 1, we interviewed 26 experts to assess the relevance of SST and identify types of slope ski tourers as potential tourist segments. In Study 2, we questioned 6880 slope ski tourers and applied the motivation-opportunity-ability framework to understand why consumers engage in SST and what facilitators are important to them. This article contributes to existing knowledge by (1) analyzing potential SST target groups and their needs and (2) shedding light on the underlying typology and tourism potential of SST.